Need help Installing Windows XP !!!

[Ram]

Hi Guys

I have a small question regarding the installation of my
new Windows XP Operating System.

First, let me give an overview of what I have on my system
currently.

Currently, I have 2 Hard Drives on my PC. One is 120GB
and the other is 40 GB. On this 120GB Hard Drive, I have
Windows 98. And I use this 40 GB Hard Drive as an
addditional drive. And both the drives are using the
FAT32 file system.

Now I got the upgrade version of Windows XP. What I want
to do is to convert this 40GB Hard Drive to NTFS File
System and install Windows XP on this drive and use this
120GB (which is currently FAT32 and have Windows 98)Hard
Drive as an additional drive. I primarily want to use
Windows XP on my system.

Now the question is...

Can this NTFS 40GB Hard Drive running Windows XP
recognises this FAT32 Hard Drive and vice versa ? Can I
transfer the data back and forth between both the drives ?

Are there any compatibility issues ?

My plan is, once I setup Windows XP on this NTFS 40GB Hard
Drive, I will slowly transfer files from this FAT32 120GB
Hard Drive to this NTFS 40GB Hard Drive and once I am done
copying all the files to this 40GB Hard Drive, I will
reformat this 120GB Hard Drive to NTFS File System.

So is it possible to have that transition time ?

OR am I better off with the FAT32 File System on both the
Hard Drives ?

If someone please help me with this problem, I really
appreciate.

Will be waiting for your responses.

If you need further information, please contact me.

Thank you very much.

Ram.

 

[Dennis Lazo]

ram,

if you are going to convert the 40 gig drive (which i think would be drive
d, unless the 120 gig drive is partitioned) to ntfs, you can only access
this drive when you are using windows xp.

with win xp, you can have access to fat, fat16, fat32, and ntfs drives.

with win98 you can only have to fat, fat16, and fat32.

however, if you are concerned about security, such that, you don't want
other people to access your files and folders, then ntfs is the answer.

tip: it would be better if you could make the 40gig drive your drive c,
install windows and all applications there. make the 120 gig drive your
data drive as it is always assumed that data takes more space than the
operating system and application files.

i hope that helps you a bit.
--
Regards,
Dennis Lazo

the email address from where this message has been sent from is unmonitored.
e-mails may be sent at http://dennislazo.com/email/.
information herein is provided as is with no warranties, and confers no
rights.

 

[Ram]

-----Original Message-----
ram,

if you are going to convert the 40 gig drive (which i think would be drive
d, unless the 120 gig drive is partitioned) to ntfs, you can only access
this drive when you are using windows xp.

with win xp, you can have access to fat, fat16, fat32, and ntfs drives.

with win98 you can only have to fat, fat16, and fat32.

however, if you are concerned about security, such that, you don't want
other people to access your files and folders, then ntfs is the answer.

tip: it would be better if you could make the 40gig drive your drive c,
install windows and all applications there. make the 120 gig drive your
data drive as it is always assumed that data takes more space than the
operating system and application files.

This is exactly what I want to do. In this case, do I
need to convert this 120 gig drive to NTFS ? OR can I
just leave it just like it was (FAT32) ?

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

Ram

 

[Dennis Lazo]

ram,

if you plan to just discard win98 completely, go ahead and install winxp on
your 40 gig drive as ntfs. anyways, i believe that your data is already in
the 120 gig drive.

just make your 40 gig drive your drive c, install windows, make it as ntfs
and you still would have access to your 120 gig drive using ntfs.

if you plan to use win98 still, then install winxp on the 40 gig drive using
fat32. win98 cannot access ntfs drives.

hope this helps again.
--
Regards,
Dennis Lazo

the email address from where this message has been sent from is unmonitored.
e-mails may be sent at http://dennislazo.com/email/.
information herein is provided as is with no warranties, and confers no
rights.

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Ram an ntfs file system can 'see' a fat32 file system, but a fat32 file
system cannot see an ntfs file system. So, basically you can transfer data
from your windows xp ntfs partition to your windows 98 fat32 file system but
you cannot transfer files from win 98 fat 32 to win xp ntfs. A little
complex I know but that's how things work I'm afraid. It is basically the
same if you use a Dos windows 98 start-up disk. The start-up disk will read
the windows 98 partition but not the windows xp partition.

 

[Dennis Lazo]

correction: second paragraph should read:

just make your 40 gig drive your drive c, install windows, make it as ntfs
and you still would have access to your 120 gig drive using fat32.

additional note: after installing winxp, you can convert fat32 drives to
ntfs. but you will need a third party application to convert ntfs drives to
fat32.

 

[Ram]

Dennis

I really appreciate your responses.

I got my answer. This will be of a great help.

No. I don't want to use Windows 98 anymore once I setup
WindowsXP. So I will make this 40GB as my C drive format
it to NTFS File System and install WindowsXP and will use
the 120GB FAT32 Hard Drive for my data.

Thank you very much.

Ram.

 

[Ram]

John

Thank you very much for your response. This is going to
help me understand the File Systems. I am not going to
use Windows 98 once I setup Windows XP on my computer.

I am planning to install Windows XP on 40GB NTFS Drive and
use this 120GB FAT32 Drive as a Data Drive. That way I
will have access to both the drives from Windows XP.

Thanks again for the response.

Ram.